Hulu Leaps Over the Pacific, Lands in Japan

The online TV and movie service launched its product in Japan on Thursday with a subscription price of 1,480 yen ($19.23) a month.

The company, which competes with movie streamer Netflix (NFLX) and has been put up for sales by its owners Disney (DIS), Comcast (CMCSA) and FOX Business parent News Corp (NWSA), said it will continue to roll out more programs on the service over the next several weeks.

So far, customers in that country will have access to feature films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Armageddon and Troy, as well as shows such as 24, Bones, Desperate Housewives and Lost.

As weve done in the U.S., we will rapidly and continually add content to the service, company spokesperson Johannes Larcher said on Hulus blog. The content lineup will only become more robust over time, including the addition of Japanese-produced content and content from across the Asian region in the near term.

Hulu will be available in both Japanese and English.

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At its launch event in Tokyo on Thursday, Hulu said it has entered into an exclusive mobile marketing partnership with Japans largest mobile network, NTT Docomo. The company said details of that transaction will be unveiled shortly.

We are in Japan for the long term, Larcher said.

The company said it will soon begin expanding to other markets around the world.